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Out in our solar system, there are many large objects floating around in space. They may be parts of comets, from the asteroid belt, or bits broken off planets in collisions. When these objects fall through the earth's atmosphere, they are called meteorites. Small ones burn up as they come through the atmosphere (we call them shooting stars when we see them at night), but larger ones can hit the earth's surface.
Some time ago, scientists suggested that a large meteorite, about 10km in diameter, hit earth 65 million years ago. They thought this because of the kind of metals and minerals found in rocks of this period.